An optimized SVPWM switching strategy for three-level NPC VSI and a novel switching strategy for three-level two-quadrant chopper to stabilize the voltage of capacitors

Abstract

Abstract Voltage source inverter (VSI) can produce single and three-phase (3P) AC voltages from a constant or variable DC voltage. There are many ways to control the VSI output voltage. Each control way produces some harmonics at the VSI output voltage. The space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) may be more effective than other modulation methods, e.g. harmonic injection, phase shifting, multi career pulse width modulation, in decreasing the low order harmonics (LOH). Different switching strategies (SSs) of power electronic devices in SVPWM have some specific advantages and disadvantages with regard to one another. In this paper, a comparative study between different SVPWM SSs is carried out by considering some objective functions such as total harmonic distortion (THD), power and switching losses, the ratio of the harmonic components to the fundamental component, distortion factor (DF). It is also shown that by selecting an optimized and appropriate SS for SVPWM, the harmonic orders, which are the multiples of the frequency index (FI), are eliminated. Then, to investigate the impact of variations of the capacitors voltage and switching frequency on power quality criteria, the most appropriate and optimized SS is applied to a 3P three-level (3L) neutral-point-clamped (NPC) VSI to supply a 3P load. This paper also presents a novel and optimized SS and control approach for a 3L two-quadrant (2Q) chopper in NPC VSI superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES). Using the proposed SS, the voltage of the VSI capacitors in SMES can be independently controlled; also, the minimum power and switching losses - as well as the proper convection - can be achieved using this same strategy. The simulation results indicate that when combined with a proportional-integral (PI) control approach the proposed SS can be easily implemented in the power networks and can balance and stabilize the multi-level VSIs’ capacitor voltage level. The voltage variation of the capacitors in the steady state condition is less than (0.062%) which is 15 times better than the IEEE standard requirement (1%). To investigate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed approach in stabilizing capacitor voltage, SMES performance using the presented approach is compared with that of SMES when the capacitors of the 3L VSI are replaced with equal and ideal voltage sources. This comparison is carried out from the power quality point of view and it is shown that the proposed SS with a PI controller is highly reliable.